Carbonology is an app that provides convenient access to important sustainability information of common household products to help consumers lead a more sustainable life. Over the course of 72 hours, my team and I designed a mobile prototype to help consumers lead a more sustainable life through education and incentives.
Award: 2nd Place at UC Irvine's Impact 2022 Design-a-thon
User research, wireframing, prototyping
3 days
Figma
Angel Yim, An Nguyen, Ryan Yang
Almost 75% of trash could be recycled and repurposed, but identifying recyclable items can be confusing, and finding nearby recycling facilities can be inconvenient. With a lack of information, limited convenient access, and no financial incentive to recycle, people are less inclined to recycle and to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.
I rapid design solutioned an app to increase recycling rates in 3 days.
Surveys were sent out to understand people's current recycling behaviors and their purchasing habits, pointing to information, accessibility, and financial gaps. To dig deeper into people's perspectives toward recycling, literature reviews were conducted, which revealed financial incentives are effective for people with less knowledge of the environment and vice versa, and people face uncertainty about the recyclability of items.
There is currently no motivation for Americans to go through the effort to recycle.
There are too many factors to consider when recycling for what items can or cannot be recycled.
Recycling is a hassle because there are rarely nearby recycling bins in public or recycling centers.
I drafted low fidelity sketches to quickly identify opportunities to address the financial gap to get alignment across the team with a low lift effort. I used this to get a clear project direction.
Green was chosen as a primary color due to its frequent association with the environment. Various tints and shades of green and purple are used to maintain a cool-toned and calming color palette. The Open Sans font was selected for its legibility.
To address the informational gap, users can find community events to participate in and news of current events.
With personal impact information, users can discover a product's recyclability, biodegration, carbon footprint, and alternative choices.
Scanning the product's barcode to learn about its level of sustainability and alternative choices, reducing the time needed to learn about a product's impact.
Earn points through recycling and redeem coupons to use for items on your next grocery shopping trip.
Users can explore local recycling, compost, and donation centers close by.
I had to choose the right fidelity under the constraint timeline. Creating quick, different iterations helped brainstorm and explore the variations to refine on, giving opportunities to select the best version that fits the user's needs, wants, and addresses their challenges.
Because of the short timeline, it was crucial my teammates and I understood the expectations at the beginning and the goals of each step throughout the project. Doing this allowed me to focus on my work, and both collaborate smoothly with others and work independently.
